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Interns Committee of Sem.MResidents eace - . _ rcw nun move nnsErs — 0a, evOiONCC SA A ANA P & " Alianzaw 4W �� ♦ • J ustice Miniws tr 4.jo Trdnslatinp • UNITEST cnuscn 1 InI 1 •:r Ve.L.A.- `<Oy S�ehuork c,P� L. %a �1�! CR EC E PUBLIC LAwCENTER URBANFARMS ;OOPERACION SANTA ANAL U W LOCAL 675 r--.�� "ROM ;":u%.. TENANTS TOGETHER Church a ttMessiab�' ` Dear Members of the Santa Ana City Council and Mayor Vicente Sarmiento, On behalf of the Tenants United Coalition, we urge you to vote in favor of Agenda Item 933, and thereby helping to enact rent stabilization and just cause eviction protections in Santa Ana. Correspondingly, we urge you to take the necessary steps to create a rent board to help enforce these protections after they become law. The proposed ordinance before you was drafted by, and for residents of Santa Ana with the goal of protecting the most vulnerable working-class tenants in our community. On September 30', 2021, COVID-19 emergency housing protections will expire, leaving many residents at risk of eviction and displacement, and threatening the culture of our city. Likewise, beginning in October 2021 all renters who have been financially impacted by the pandemic will be required to pay a significant percentage of the rent debt they've accrued in addition to covering present and future rent payments in full. Figures show 89% of rental assistance funds have not been distributed at the federal level. hi addition, the federal unemployment benefit programs under the CARES Act ended on September 4', 2021. Yet, many renters continue to face unjust evictions and predatory rent hikes, all while accumulating rent debt. It is unconscionable that as renters recover from this devastating pandemic, they are simultaneously subject to predatory rent hikes. Especially preposterous when residents making minimum wage of $14 an hour are expected to work 104 hours per week to afford a I -bedroom apartment. Now more than ever, it is imperative that we enact REAL permanent renter protections in our city. Our ordinance would provide a cap on rent increases so that rent cannot be increased more than 3% per year and extend just -cause eviction protections for most renters in the city. The city of Santa Ana has been the hardest hit by the pandemic in all of Orange County, with almost 900 COVID-19 confirmed deaths and over 48,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases. The global pandemic has also had catastrophic economic consequences for residents in Santa Ana. The majority of residents are working-class, low-income, renters (56%), extremely rent - burdened (64%) and live in mixed -status households. When such a great number of the population is already rent burdened, meaning they are spending over 40% of their income on rent, unregulated rent increases particularly put our community members at risk of becoming houseless. Therefore, Rent Stabilization and Eviction Protection policies equal houselessness prevention.